You shall not steal (Exodus 20:15). We might think, “Whew! Got off easy on this one!” We law abiding sorts do not pilfer office supplies, skim from the collection basket, shoplift, or rob banks. At last, this is one commandment that we are handily observing, right? Right — if we stick to the letter of the law. But the commandments are demanding, calling us beyond superficial observance. There are more forms of stealing than we might realize.

Let’s look first at homegrown forms, then at the larger picture of social justice. For example, we rob our families of hours together when we work overtime at jobs to buy more than necessities. The Catholic Church has long taught that people created by God are too precious to be merely a means of profit. Our birthright gifts as God’s children include dignity, security, the divine, transcendent love. So why do we hoard lesser things?

We steal person’s enthusiasm with negative comments. We quash plans that sound naïve to us, quell a child’s creativity, stifle the initiative of a new employee. Unfounded fears can block imaginative solutions and worse — the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Two forms of theft steal from the present —anxiety over the future or mulling over the past. Both rob the current moment of grace and potential.

The items in closets that do not fit or are not worn — these, too, are stolen from those who could be using them, who might actually be thrilled to have them. As Saint Basil reminds us: “The coat in your closet belongs to the naked. The shoes rotting in your basement belong to the barefoot.” Our property and talents belong to us but were given to us by God for the benefit of others. Here again, our model is Christ, who became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

A look through the Catechism of the Catholic Church reveals social dimensions of this commandment, condemning the payment of unjust wages, bribes to legislators, breaking a contract, and work done poorly. Plus, discrimination against minorities, women, and immigrants, by denying them job opportunities, violates the Eighth Commandment. How Las Vegas must tremble to hear the words: “The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement (CCC 2413).” We may cringe at the busloads of people pumping their savings into slot machines. So, too, people who lavish more money and attention on pets than some children receive are not exercising proper stewardship: “One can love animals; one should not direct to them the affection due only to persons (CCC 2418).” On a more global scale, the arms race plunders the planet’s resources, substituting weapons for basic needs. President Dwight Eisenhower prophetically warned in 1961 that the military-industrial complex could sap our country’s riches.

To conclude on a bright note, many people are making efforts at reparation. Corporate pollution may steal clean water and air, but it is heartening to think of the youth group at Saint Edward the Confessor Parish in Richmond, Virginia. The kids sponsored a feast from every liquid except tap water and donated the money they would have spent to a project providing clean water in Nicaragua. As Helen Keller said: “The world is full of suffering. It is also full of the overcoming of it.” Those who repay the thefts occurring in homes and societies honor the Eighth Commandment brilliantly.

CCGR Weekly Newsletter (8-20-23)
Bringing Home the Word (8-20-23)
The Kids Bulletin (8-20-23)

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The Gift of Charity
Corporal Works of Mercy
Loving Christ in Disguise